Taijiquan Journal

Explaining Tai Chi

2009-06-19T09:52:00.002-06:00

An extensive article on tai chi in the Oakland Examiner says: "Tai chi may be the next yoga. But for the moment, this Chinese martial art still puzzles most Americans. It's a 3,000-year-old sport without balls, superstars or competition. Old folks do it. The rules are slowness, softness, yielding and letting go. The postures can take years to comprehend. And there are no sexy outfits or accessories to buy. What’s the point?"
Read the whole article here.

International Taiji Symposium to be Held

2009-06-08T09:07:00.004-06:00

Traditional Tai Chi Chuan:
A View Through the Lens of Science
July 5-10, 2009
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
In July of 2009, the world’s foremost authorities on the five traditional Chinese Family Schools of Tai Chi Chuan, as well as other top Tai Chi Chuan practitioners and scholars will come to Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee for an international level Tai Chi Chuan Symposium. The theme of this Symposium will focus on bringing together the wisdom of Chinese culture with the precision of modern science through evidence-based academic sessions, Master’s workshops and other special events designed to foster an exchange of knowledge and cultures.
For information visit the website

Books Received May 2009

2009-06-08T08:13:00.010-06:00

• The Essence of T'ai Chi Ch'uan: The Literary Tradition, Second Edition; translated by Benjamin Lo, Martin Inn, Robert Amacker, Susan Foe, IRI Press
• Tai Chi Chuan: State of the Art in International Research by Youlian Hong; Karger Publishers, 2008
• Seeking the Spirit of the Book of Change: 8 Days to Mastering a Shamanic Yijing (I Ching) Prediction System, by Zhongxian Wu, Singing Dragon
• You Are How You Move: Experiential Chi Kung, by Ged Sumner; Singing Dragon Eternal Spring: Taijiquan, Qi Gong, and the Cultivation of Health, Happiness and Longevity, by Michael Acton; Singing Dragon.
• Meet Your Body: Core Bodywork and Rolfing Tools to Release Bodymindcore Trauma, by Noah Karrasch; Singing Dragon.
• Beyond the Daode jing: Twofold Mystery in Tang Daoism, by Friederike Assandri; Three Pines Press

Tai Chi Improves Balance

2009-04-30T05:09:00.004-06:00

The scientific community continues to explore tai chi as a theraputic modality. A recent New York Times article reported on a research study involving stroke patients. "While the exercise group showed little improvement in balance, the tai chi group made significant gains when they were tested on weight-shifting, reaching and how well they could maintain their stability on a platform that moved like a bus." (New York Times 4/7/09)

New Taiji Park in Ontario

2009-04-26T13:37:00.003-06:00

The Peng You Taiji Quan Association in Thunder Bay, Ontario (朋友太極拳協會) has won the designation of their practice area of Marina Park on the shores of Lake Superior as "International Taiji Park." The group was host to the International Forum on Taijiquan in 2006. "Plans are underway to give this area a special visual appeal. Maybe it will be a moongate which frames the Sleeping Giant," the iconic landmass visible from this northwoods town.

World Tai Chi Day 2009

2009-04-05T09:29:00.004-06:00

World Tai Chi Day is coming up--check your local newspapers or the official site for events, or, lacking any, go out to a park and do some tai chi yourself--help spread the word about this wonderful health-enhancing practice!

Tai Chi, Mastery, and Golf

2009-04-05T08:41:00.001-06:00

Did you know that tai chi practice can help your golf game? A Wall Street Journal article recently covered the topic of practice and mastery—and lo, and behold, some golfers are using what they call the "tai chi swing" to help straighten out their golf technique. The slow pace of tai chi helps golfers analyze swings that would otherwise be done at high speeds that don't allow time for observation of accuracy.
Mastery, though, as Malcolm Gladwell says, can take 10,000 hours of practice. Time to start work!(Wall Street Journal 3/19/09)

Knee Arthritis Helped by Tai Chi

2009-02-20T12:03:00.000-06:00

"The traditional Chinese form of exercise known as tai chi can help reduce pain and physical impairment in people who have knee arthritis, researchers said this week.
In their study, one group of people in their 60s with severe knee osteoarthritis performed tai chi for an hour twice a week for 12 weeks, while a similar group did the same amount of conventional stretching exercises over the same period.
Those who did tai chi experienced greater pain reduction, less depression and improvements in physical function and overall health, researchers led by Dr. Chenchen Wang of Tufts Medical Center in Boston reported at a meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in San Francisco." Read the whole Reuters story at Canada.com. (Image: Andrew Wong/Getty Images)

Golf Benefits from Tai Chi

2009-02-16T11:25:00.001-06:00

"Golfers hoping to improve their swing could do worse than to try their hand at Tai Chi, according to a Nantwich health expert.
Julia Hudson, a postgraduate researcher at MMU Cheshire, has found that golfers who practise the ancient Chinese art have a better chance of combining power and control in their game....'I recommend Tai Chi because of how it encourages the whole body to work in harmony. Golfers came back with their back pain gone and they also observed that their game had improved by couple of shots per round.'" Read the complete article at Crewe Chronicle 2/11/2009

T'ai Chi in the Art Museum

2009-02-14T10:37:00.006-06:00

Taijiquan Journal editor Barbara Davis led an overflow crowd of children and parents in a fun set of t'ai chi exercises at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts Chinese Lantern Festival Family Day.
Over 4,000 people attended the day's events which included pipa music by Gao Heng, painting activities withe Bob Schmitt of Laughing Waters Studio (Bob designed and did layout of the print edition of Taijiquan Journal), paper lantern-making, and performances by the CAAM, the Chinese Dance Theater. This annual event is one of the Art Institute's monthly family activities that highlight different parts of the museum's diverse, large collection.

Random Acts of Coffee Kindness

2008-12-30T10:42:00.004-06:00

Remember tai chi teacher Arthur Rosenfeld's "Random Act of Kindness" in diffusing an irate man's temper at a Starbucks? Read about it from Arthur's point of view on the Huffington Post.

Tai Chi 2009 Events Planned

2008-12-16T07:03:00.006-06:00

It will be difficult to surpass the excitement of the 2008 Olympics in the tai chi world, but several major events are planned.
•The Zhang Sanfeng Festival returns with its usual eclectic mix of classes, June 4–7, 2009, in the east coast of the USA.
•Great Britain will host a variety of European-based teachersTai Chi Caledonia July 3–10, 2009 in Stirling Scotland.
•The International T'ai Chi Ch'uan Symposium will be held July 5–10, 2009 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. This event will feature the top masters of all the major lineages: Chen Zhenglei, Yang Zhenduo, Wu Wenhan, Ma Hailong, and Song Yongtian.

Ethel still enjoys a life of exercise

2008-12-16T06:40:00.004-06:00

"After more than 40 years teaching yoga and tai chi Ethel Lote is retiring – at the grand age of 88. But the Aldridge grandmother has no plans to give up exercise herself as she knows the benefits.
A nurse during World War Two and a dental health lecturer for much of her life, Ethel was first introduced to the benefits of yoga more than 40 years ago and has practised it, and now tai chi, daily ever since.
The sprightly pensioner is living proof of the benefits. “I only found out about yoga accidentally,” she says.
“I was on a training course and I walked into a lecture on yoga and thought it all made really good sense. So I came back and did some more reading about it and decided to train with the All India Board of Yoga.”
Nearly ten years ago, Ethel also took up the ancient Chinese exercise of tai chi, which is particularly suited to older people. She has been running classes combining the two ever since." Read the complete Birmingham Mail article. (12/16/08)

Acupuncture Works?

2008-12-11T09:08:00.004-06:00

A recent survey shows that 38% of American adults use "alternative" health therapies. "More than one-third of adults and nearly 12 percent of children in the United States use alternatives to traditional medicine, according to a large federal survey released today that documents how entrenched acupuncture, herbal remedies and other once-exotic therapies have become. The 2007 survey of more than 32,000 Americans, which for the first time included children, found that use of yoga, "probiotics," fish oil and other "complementary and alternative" therapies held steady among adults since the last national survey five years earlier, and that such treatments have become part of health care for many youngsters." See the whole article at Washington Post 12/11/2008

Duchess of Cornwall Knows Health Helpers

2008-12-06T10:44:00.000-06:00

A recent article reports that the Duchess of Cornwall is considering taking up tai chi or pilates to help guard against the osteoporosis that runs in her family.
"The Duchess, 61, urged mature women to lead more active lifestyles at an exercise class organised by the National Osteoporosis Society (NOS), of which she is president.
The campaign to prevent the bone-wasting condition – which affects one in three women over the age of 50 – is particularly close to the Duchess's heart as it claimed the lives of her mother and grandmother. She yesterday admitted to feeling "quite naughty" about her own lack of exercise.
"I did do a bit of yoga and used to do a lot of walking before I got married but I have let things slide," she said at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, North London, after watching an instructor put a group of women through their paces at the NOS's recreation club.
"I thought I was doing enough to protect myself from osteoporosis but it seems not. I think I am going to have to make it my New Year's resolution – maybe to do some pilates or even some Tai Chi." The Telegraph 11/20/2008

T'ai Chi for Lowering Blood Sugar

2008-12-05T10:56:00.003-06:00

Concerned about blood sugar?
"Regular walking can help control blood sugar, lower blood pressure and fight metabolic syndrome. But what if you don’t enjoy walking or the weather is too cold or too hot? Are there gentle indoor exercises that can help?
A recent study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine showed that regular practice of the gentle, relaxing exercises of tai chi and qigong may do the trick.
Eleven participants, aged 42 to 65, with elevated blood sugar attended tai chi and qigong exercise training for one to one and a half hours, three times a week, for 12 weeks. They were also encouraged to practice at home. Most people stuck with the program and the tai chai and qigong health benefits were evident. Body mass index, waist circumference and blood pressure showed significant improvement and there were small improvements in fasting insulin and insulin resistance." See full article at Stop Aging Now, 11/11/2008.

Lecture on Tai Chi History & Cheng Man-ch'ing

2008-10-28T10:51:00.003-06:00

“Cheng Man-ch’ing:
Master of Five Excellences”
A talk by Barbara Davis
Director, Cheng Man-ch’ing Biography Project and editor of Taijiquan Journal
Saturday, November 8th, 2008, 6:30 pm
Sun Gallery, 4760 Grand Avenue South
612-822-6388
Learn about this intriguing master of painting, calligraphy, poetry, medicine, and t’ai chi. Cheng is most well known for his role in the spread of t’ai chi into the US in the 1960s. Come explore his life, his dreams, and his prodigious talents. Slides and movies of his artwork and t’ai chi will also be shown .
For further information, read the project blog, call 612-822-5760,
or email editor"at" taijiquanjournal.com.

Taiji is True North?

2008-10-06T09:11:00.004-06:00

Ever wonder why we face certain directions in taiji practice?
One might argue that it's because "taiji" can refer to the Pole Star, or because the Chinese emperors faced south, or because of the placement of a courtyard used for practice, but the real reason might be in our bodies.
A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences "Direct observations of roe deer revealed that animals orient their heads northward when grazing or resting. Amazingly, this ubiquitous phenomenon does not seem to have been noticed by herdsmen, ranchers, or hunters. Because wind and light conditions could be excluded as a common denominator determining the body axis orientation, magnetic alignment is the most parsimonious explanation. To test the hypothesis that cattle orient their body axes along the field lines of the Earth's magnetic field, we analyzed the body orientation of cattle from localities with high magnetic declination. Here, magnetic north was a better predictor than geographic north."

{Picture} Rob Taverner in the UK practicing taiji in front of his herd. Metro.co.uk

Think Twice About Incense

2008-10-03T08:29:00.006-06:00

Incense is a mixed blessing, it turns out. Used by some as an aid to rituals or mental focus, heavy use of incense is now linked to some respiratory cancers.
A recent study at the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen followed 61,000 Chinese in Singapore for twelve years, and found increased risk of certain types of cancers. This is further exacerbated by cigarette smoking. Cancer October 2008.

Dressage the Tai Chi of Olympic sports

2008-08-18T09:47:00.007-06:00

The New Zealand Herald reports that dressage—the "ballet" of horse training featured at the Olympics—is most like t'ai chi ch'uan. It is a sport that involves balance and flexibility, responsiveness and grace.

"For someone brought up on rugby, cricket, basketball, tennis, and boxing this one takes work to grasp its niceties. I didn’t get it, until I realised it is actually Tai Chi with four legs, six if you count the rider....[it] is slow, detailed, and requires utter concentration." (Denis Edwards New Zealand Herald 8/10/08; painting by Xu Beihong).

In a related topic, the Summer 2003 issue of Taijiquan Journal featured three articles about t'ai chi ch'uan and horses:

•"The Taiji Horse Riding Form" by Michael Stenson, a horse trainer
•"The Cauldron and the Horse: Internal Cultivation and Yijing by Zhongxian Wu, qigong master
•"All Stances are Horse Stances: Taijiquan's Equine Ancestry" by Paul Magee, acupuncturist

Limited quantities of back issues of Taijiquan Journal are still available at an Olympic special of $5 each (US orders). Offer good until September 17th, 2008. See our website for further information.

Olympic Pageantry Features 2,008 T'ai Chi Performers 太極拳在中國奧林匹克

2008-08-09T07:10:00.011-06:00

The story of the 2008 Beijing Olympics is being told from many viewpoints: the athlete (as one would expect); the political and economical significance of China's rise (certainly not the first time in its long history); and the cultural—witness the opening ceremonies filled with symbolism, history and pride; not to mention the local, everyday scenes. T'ai chi is being featured both in the ceremonies and the neighborhoods as exercise, embodiment of culture, and as martial art.
The China Daily (中國日报) gives a wonderfully detailed description of the whole Opening Ceremony program. Here's the excerpt about the art of t'ai chi:

"Nature: You can interpret this number as a call for biological protection, but that would be reading too much pragmatism into it. It is about man's relations with nature, embodied in the movements of tai chi. It expounds on the philosophies from The Book of Changes, which contains an ancient system of cosmology intrinsic to Chinese cultural beliefs. The cosmology centers on the ideas of the dynamic balance of opposites.

“The 2,008 performers doing tai chi in a circle that surrounds a rectangle is an epitome of the notion of "heaven is round and earth is square". And the boxing itself perfectly illustrates Lao Tzu's teaching -- 'The soft and the pliable will defeat the hard and strong.'" China Daily

Here are other observations by reporters on the scene:

"Clearly the organizers of the opening ceremonies in Beijing spared no expense in putting this spectacle together. The Tai Chi sequence alone was a marvel of synchronization, athleticism and grace." said the Edmonton Sun.

"Amid forests of sheer fabric on which shifting images of water and light skittered, Tai-chi dancers offered a glimpse of a peculiarly Chinese environmentalism – the unity of mankind and nature." Wall Street Journal

"China hails the Beijing Olympics as the fulfillment of its "100-year dream", a slogan that harks back to a time when China was "the sick man of Asia" and looked to sport to help it return to its former status." Reuters

"You never have to travel a million miles to get cool martial arts in China - kung fu was a major feature, despite China's failure to have it installed as an Olympic sport. The sight of thousands of white-gowned tai-chi experts going through their paces was impressive." Variety

For those inspired by the Beijing Olympics to take up t'ai chi, use the links to the right to find t'ai chi groups near you.

China Steps up to Olympic Plate

2008-08-02T09:51:00.004-06:00

"WHEN YOU MENTION the Olympics in Beijing, there is a Chinese proverb you are likely to hear from smiling retirees practising their tai chi early in the morning in the city's lovely parks, or from hungry bureaucrats scoffing noodles in a bustling jiaozi restaurant, or even from the migrant workers from Sichuan and Anhui building the new megalopolis. It is "bai nian bu yu", which is best translated as "We've been waiting 100 years for this". The 2008 Olympic Games are China's big coming-out party and everything is going to work, no matter what." Read the full article at: Irish Times 8/2/08

T'ai Chi Helps Dental Workers

2008-08-02T09:20:00.004-06:00

"I was exposed to Chinese martial arts as a child. In my small rural community, our family shared a common alley with a grandmaster of kung fu. I listened as people spoke of the grandmaster and his secret. Students would come in hopes of learning this elusive chi (internal energy) from him, and I watched while he effortlessly bounced and threw his students. I knew this elderly Chinese man — this Kung Fu Grandmaster — as gentle and soft spoken, with an indescribable presence. Even now, I remember how intrigued I was with his inner calm and centeredness....From the day I started practicing tai chi, it felt familiar. Surprisingly, while practicing clinical dental hygiene one day, it came to me — the principles of tai chi are applicable to the practice of dental hygiene. A knowledge and practice of tai chi might help dental hygienists work effortlessly, manage the demands of ergonomics, and cope with internal and external stresses." In this highly informative article for dental workers by Carol Lee, RDH, BS, the author outlines the important points of t'ai chi

Taekwondo Champ Tries T'ai Chi

2008-08-01T09:08:00.000-06:00

"Taiwan's first gold medallist Chu Mu-yen is confident he will retain his taekwondo title in Beijing while girlfriend Yang Shu-chun is hoping for success in the women's competition.'An athlete has to climb up and seek a breakthrough to win and I think tai chi helps stabilise Chu to bring him to the next level,' [coach] Chang said. Tai chi, which is meant to harmonise body and soul with slow and flexible movements, is popular in Taiwan particularly among elderly people."
Chu is dealing with the Olympic pressures with tai chi and staying with his teammates on a retreat to a Buddhist monastary in southern Taiwan. Read the full article at: The Telegraph 7/31/08

Exercise by Pill Proxy

2008-07-31T08:18:00.000-06:00

Researchers report that they've developed pills that mimic the effects of exercise. Tested on mice, the pills "reproduce many of the biological benefits of exercise, helping cells burn fat better and boosting endurance, said Ronald Evans, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California. One of the pills may some day help people enhance their exercise or training, while the other might be more suited for couch potatoes who need to kick-start themselves, Evans and colleagues reported on Thursday in the journal Cell."
Of course, they've already developed a way to test athletes for the presence of the drug. Read the whole article in Reuters 7/31/08.